With
this reflection we enter fully into this season of expectation, which is the
season of Advent. Not only is the spirit of expectation characteristic of this
time, but also along with expectation comes another attitude that always goes
along with the long wait, which is that of preparation. We all know that this
season is a preparation for Christmas, when the somber violet of the liturgy
gives way to the resplendent white of the solemnity of the Nativity of Our
Lord, who assumed our humanity and “pitched his tent” among us (to relay the
Semitic sense of the term “incarnation”). But along with this we must also keep
in mind that we are preparing to celebrate not merely the yearly feast of the
Lord’s coming in history among us as man; with this season the Church raises
its eyes to the horizon of time, waiting for the Lord to return in glory.
Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, as we profess
in the Creed. Thus, Advent is a time of expectation and preparation not only
for Christmas, when we celebrate the mystery of the Word of God who was made
flesh and dwelt among us, but at the same time it raises our eyes to the fact
that the Lord will come again at the end of history, both our personal history
(when we die and close our eyes to this temporal life) and that of this world
(or that which we would call the Second Coming, the Parousía).
For
the coming of such a great guest, we see the imperative obligation to prepare.
We see in the First Reading, taken from the book of Isaiah, that the coming of
the Holy One of Israel makes evident to us our own unworthiness and sinfulness.
We are able to recognize that in our present state of heart we are unworthy of
receiving the Lord into our midst because of the hardness of our hearts,
because of our sinfulness, because of the filth that we have brought upon
ourselves in deciding to stray away from him like so many sheep. O
that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking
before you, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they
have not heard of from of old. This distance that we have from the Lord due
to our sins makes our human heart clamor all the more for His coming, knowing
that it is restless until it rests in the Lord. This cry for the Lord’s
presence is echoed in the Responsorial Psalm: Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved!
At
this point it is evident that the purification of our lives is in order, if we
are to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming. Among the early Christians, who
looked forward with expectation for the Lord’s return, there was the
consciousness that it was partly their sins that delayed His coming; this made
them all the more conscious of the need for the purification of their hearts
through penance and good works. This is something that we have to imitate and
live in our day, especially this season of Advent. Aside from just looking
forward to the parties and the bonuses that we would inevitably receive, the
parties we would attend, the gifts we may receive, the expenses we would have
to make in this generous season, over and above all we have to live this desire
for purification, through penance and good works. Advent recollections made
during this time of the year are good opportunities for us to live and increase
this desire for the Lord’s coming in us; going towards the encounter with the
Lord in the Sacrament of Penance is a great help, if not a must, for the Christian
who wants to prepare himself or herself well. On the other hand, the practice
of good works allows us to go beyond ourselves and our selfishness by living
for others, combatting one of the greatest temptations that this season has for
many of us: the secularist Christmas
(if there is really such a term, it being a contradiction) insists that THE way
to pass this season is to spend and indulge and to “live everything to the max”
without a thought of what the mystery of the Incarnation really means: God
divesting himself of glory before our eyes, so that we may be clothed with the
richness of His mercy. It is part of the Christian’s ascetic struggle to combat
this secularist and materialistic view of the season with one’s own struggle to
respond to the perennial call to conversion and holiness.
In
responding to this call one needs another quality of which the Lord in the
Gospel for this Sunday exhorts us to have. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the Lord of the House
is coming. The Lord exhorts us to be perseveringly vigilant. One cannot
separate these two concepts of vigilance and perseverance. One has to watch
without losing heart, without ceasing. This is what it means to have a
prayerful heart. A heart that prays because it loves does not desist from
looking out into the horizon, expecting the object of its affection to come at
any moment. St. Paul in the Second Reading, taken from the first letter to the
Corinthians, assures us that it is the Lord himself who sustains us in the
struggle to be watchful, prepared and expectant: in Jesus Christ we have been “enriched in every way…not lacking in any
spiritual gift as we await for the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. To top
it all, Paul says: he will keep you firm
to the end.
So let
us live this season of Advent, not with heads lowered to the things that keep
us pressed to material things, but to stand up with raised heads, like what the
Gospel says, awaiting the Lord’s coming into our lives, allowing His presence
to purify us, strengthen our families, make justice flourish in our society. Amen!
Come Lord Jesus!
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